Surviving the Baby Bull Phase: Blenders, Bulldogs, and Purees

I was standing in my kitchen wearing yesterday's yoga pants, staring at a splatter of neon orange sweet potato on my ceiling while our rescue pit mix tried to lick the matching orange stain off my six-month-old's foot. The myth they sell you is that this stage is supposed to be some beautiful, Instagram-worthy aesthetic where your child delicately eats organic kale while your gentle giant dog sleeps peacefully by the fireplace. What a load of garbage. Let me tell you right now that the reality is loud, sticky, and smells faintly of dog breath and pureed peas.

When you start searching the internet for things like baby bull at two in the morning, you're usually in one of two frantic camps. You're either trying to figure out if you actually need that specific little countertop blender to make homemade food, or you're deeply panicking about how your baby bulldog or bully breed rescue is going to react to a screaming newborn. Because my brain constantly jumps between trying to feed my kids and trying to keep the pets from trampling them, I'm going to talk about both. I'm just gonna be real with you—mixing dogs, infants, and pureed vegetables is a circus, and nobody hands you a manual for it.

The great homemade puree delusion

I need to talk about the countertop appliance situation first because the pressure to become a five-star chef for a human who literally just learned they've hands is ridiculous. Everyone swore I needed a baby bullet blender to survive my first kid. I completely bought into it with my oldest, Tucker, bless his heart. I spent way too much money at the grocery store—which, living out here in rural Texas, is a solid twenty-minute drive each way—buying organic squash and fancy apples that I painstakingly steamed and blended into oblivion.

The system itself is kind of neat because it comes with those little storage cups that have a date-dial on them, so you supposedly know exactly when you made the food. But the funny thing about making homemade baby food is that you spend an hour prepping a beautiful, preservative-free meal only to have your kid spit it directly into their own ear. Half the time I forgot to spin the little dial anyway, so my fridge was just full of mysterious brown mush that all claimed to be made on the fourth of the month. You end up washing a million tiny blades and cups while your kid screams from the high chair because you didn't mash the bananas fast enough.

My doctor said something about how homemade purees are great because they don't have all the preservatives of the stuff sitting on the shelves, which means you've got to get them in the fridge within a couple of hours or freeze them before they go bad. I think she told me they only last a few days in the refrigerator, but if we're being honest, if it smells funky or I can't remember what week I made it, I just throw it in the trash. And my doctor was super serious about never putting honey in anything for a kid under one, which I'm pretty sure has something to do with weird spores that their tiny unformed stomachs absolutely can't handle without getting dangerously sick.

Store-bought pouches are perfectly fine and I buy them in bulk without an ounce of guilt.

While we're on the subject of things babies shove into their mouths, my mom bought us one of those trendy silicone teethers because Tucker was chewing on everything in sight. We had the Bubble Tea Teether, and it's cute, I guess, with the little colorful boba pearls and the fact that it doesn't have any of the BPA junk that makes me paranoid. But if I'm being totally honest with y'all, Tucker mostly just used it as a projectile weapon to chuck at the dog's head from his high chair. It washes easy in the dishwasher, which I appreciate because I refuse to hand-wash anything else, but I wouldn't call it a miracle worker for his teething fits.

When your gentle giant meets a crawling potato

Now we've to talk about the dog situation, because bringing a fragile infant into a house with a stocky, muscular dog is terrifying, no matter how much you love your pet. My grandma always said to just let the dogs and the kids work it out on their own, which is absolutely terrible advice that probably explains a lot of the chaotic injuries in our family tree. You can't just cross your fingers and hope your dog understands what a baby is.

Our doctor looked me dead in the eye at our first checkup and told me to never, ever leave the baby alone with the dog, even for a second, no matter how much of a sweet, lazy potato the dog usually is. People talk about "nanny dogs" all the time, but the reality is that the dynamic totally shifts when your kid goes from being a sleepy lump on a blanket to a crawling terror at around eight months. Suddenly they're yanking on ears, trying to steal squeaky toys, and backing the dog into corners, which makes even the absolute calmest pup incredibly anxious.

You have to learn to read their weird little body language signs before a growl even happens. I noticed our dog would do this thing where he'd turn his head away from Tucker but keep watching him out of the corner of his eye—showing all the whites of his eyes—which I think trainers call "whale eye" and is a huge red flag that they're stressed out. He would also start licking his lips aggressively or yawning when he clearly wasn't tired, which was his way of saying he was completely overwhelmed by the tiny human grabbing at his tail.

Throwing a sturdy gate across your living room door while tossing high-value treats to your dog every time they manage to look calmly at the baby instead of trying to lick their eyeballs or steal their toys will save you so much anxiety and money in the long run.

We started the whole process before we even brought the baby home from the hospital. My husband drove back to the house with a little striped hospital blanket the baby had been swaddled in and just let the dog sniff it from a distance while giving him a bunch of praise. It sounds a little silly, but letting them get used to the smell before the screaming potato actually arrives makes a massive difference.

Clothes that actually survive the mess

Between the baby spitting up homemade green beans and the dog leaving massive puddles of drool everywhere, your kid's clothes are going to take an absolute beating. Y'all, I'm so picky about clothes because I'm on a tight budget and I refuse to buy things that shrink into Barbie-sized rags after one trip through my chaotic laundry pile.

If there's one thing that has really survived the endless cycle of dog drool, sweet potato explosions, and dragging across my somewhat-clean floors, it's the Sleeveless Organic Cotton Baby Bodysuit. This onesie is genuinely incredible and worth every single penny. Anyone who has ever tried to dress a squirming infant knows they act like an angry alligator during diaper changes, but this has this stretchy envelope neckline that glides right over their giant noggins without a fight.

The organic cotton honestly lets their skin breathe so they don't break out in those weird, angry red heat rashes in the Texas summer, and the fabric is thick enough that it wipes clean when your dog inevitably gives them a big wet kiss right on the shoulder. I bought three of them in the earth tones, and they're basically the only thing my youngest wears on days when we're just surviving the house. Plus, there are no scratchy tags to irritate the eczema spots on the back of his neck.

Honestly, the whole first year is just managing the chaos of what goes into their mouths and keeping them from being squished by the pets. If you need a breather from the madness, you should probably just browse through some organic baby clothes that won't give you a headache to wash.

Finding a safe zone in the living room

Because you can't hold the baby twenty-four hours a day, and because the dog thinks every blanket on the floor belongs to him, you've to create spaces where the baby can just exist safely. I learned the hard way that putting a playmat directly on the rug just meant the dog would come lay directly on top of the baby's toys.

When you need a safe spot to park the kid where the dog isn't immediately tempted to step on them, the Rainbow Play Gym Set is genuinely pretty handy. I really like that it's just made of natural wood and soft fabric instead of being a giant plastic monstrosity that screams nursery rhymes at me in three different languages while flashing strobe lights.

It gives the baby something to stare at and bat their little fists against, which buys me exactly enough time to scrape the dried peas off the kitchen counter or switch the laundry over. The hanging elephant toy is cute, and the wooden rings make a nice little clacking sound that keeps my baby entertained without overstimulating everyone in the house. It's a solid piece of gear that doesn't make my living room look like a daycare exploded.

Stop trying to make everything look perfect for the internet and just focus on keeping everyone fed, relatively clean, and un-bitten. If you're ready to upgrade your kid's wardrobe to stuff that really survives this wild circus, go grab a few of those organic bodysuits before you forget and end up buying more synthetic junk that shrinks in the wash.

Answers to questions you're too tired to google

Do I really need a special blender to make baby food?

Absolutely not, though they're cute and the little date cups are handy if you can really remember to use them. If you already have a regular food processor or a good blender in your kitchen, just use that. Save your money for things that honestly matter, because half the time your kid is going to refuse the organic peas anyway.

How do I keep the dog from eating the baby's dropped food?

You don't, honestly. You just accept that your dog is now a furry vacuum cleaner. But seriously, when it's mealtime, we put the dog behind a baby gate in the other room. It prevents the dog from snatching food right out of the baby's hand, which can cause snapping, and it keeps the baby from thinking it's a hilarious game to throw expensive blueberries at the floor.

Are bully breeds really dangerous around infants?

Any dog of any breed can be dangerous around an infant if you don't manage them properly. Bull breeds are super strong and often don't realize their own size, so a happy tail wag can knock a sitting baby right over. You have to be the boss, set strict boundaries, and never ever leave them alone in a room together. If your dog starts guarding toys or food, you need to hire a trainer immediately, no excuses.

How long does homemade puree honestly stay good?

My doctor said two to three days in the fridge max, because it doesn't have the preservatives that the jarred stuff has. I try to freeze whatever I know we won't use by tomorrow in ice cube trays. Once they're frozen solid, I pop them into a freezer bag so I'm not playing guessing games with weird smells later.

What should I do if my dog growls at the crawling baby?

Don't punish the growl, which sounds totally backwards, I know. My mama used to yell at the dog for growling, but a trainer told me that growling is the dog's early warning system saying they're uncomfortable. If you punish the growl, they might just skip straight to biting next time. Separate them immediately, give the dog a safe space, and start keeping them completely apart until you can get a professional behaviorist in to help you sort it out.